Montage 1
by nanduenkop
Summary: Based on the video montage in the pilot of Ford, Beckett, McKay, Sheppard, and Weir getting their ducks in a row before leaving for Atlantis. Rated T for possible stronger language. COMPLETE AT 5/5 - Weir.
1. Chapter 1: Ford

**_Author's Note:_**  
_Remember that montage in the pilot where Elizabeth is telling Simon where she's going and what she's doing – the one with video clips of Ford and Beckett and McKay and Sheppard in various stages of saying goodbye before they report to the SGC? Yeah, this is a 4-5 part series based on it (depending whether or not Elizabeth decides to cooperate). _

_Read, review, and enjoy!_

* * *

**Ford:**

Two weeks.  
Two weeks of block leave is standard before leaving the country.  
Two weeks for Ford to cram in all the things he needs to do before he leaves that the military absolutely cannot take care of-

Say all the words he needs to say to all the people he may not want to say them to because chances are ridiculously high that he will never see them again.  
Make sure Lara knows not to blame "the man" if anything happens to him.  
Promise his grandparents that this isn't the last time they'll see him, and try to pretend like he's not lying – because he knows he's going to another galaxy, and there is no guaranteed return ticket.

Once he steps through the gate, that's it.  
The life he knew is gone.  
A new life with the potential for amazing adventures is on the other side of the event horizon, waiting to be unlocked.

That's the knowledge Ford tries to push out of his head as he sits across the kitchen table from the man and woman who took in and raised him.  
Grandma's peach cobbler is heaven, and he is _not_ going to waste time thinking about the journey ahead when he needs to be in the here and now.

So he wolfs it down, then tilts back in his chair and exaggeratedly rubs his stomach while letting out a dramatic groan and a crack about how the military can never make it right.  
Grandma's satisfied grin lets him know that, at least for the moment, she's not thinking about the war zone she thinks he's headed off to.  
And Grandpa, golf sweater and cap shed on the way into the dining room, starts telling his war time stories, while Grandma clears table with a shake of her head and a twinkle in her eye.

Lara comes in just as he's getting to the part of the story where the enemy gets obliterated, sitting down in the chair next to Ford.  
She passes him a note as Grandpa finishes up, like they're back in junior high and the teacher intercepting it is the kiss of death-  
Because they're cousins and everyone knows it, the discovery of such a note would be social suicide for both of them.  
_We need to talk._

"I don't like this," she says, as they stand out underneath the porch light – Ford having promised the grandparents that he would make sure Lara got to her car safely.  
Never can be too careful, as Grandpa would say.  
Especially when it comes to them Ford women. Everybody wants one, but only a few in the world are meant to have them, so it's our job to keep them safe.

"Don't like me leaving the country?" Ford lets out an exasperated sigh. "It's my job, cuz. I go where they send me."

Lara shakes her head. "No – I know it's part of your job. And I'm proud of you. I just don't like that you're lying."

So she's picked up on it.  
Ford tries to shrug it off, because Lara is smart like that.  
Perceptive – Grandma says about her all the time – reads between the lines.

"There are things about my job that I can't get into – you all know that," he says, fighting to keep his cool. "Part of being able to do my job means not always being able to tell everyone everything about it."

"You're not coming back."

It's a strong accusation to make – unfair, but completely true.  
Ford tries to shrug it off, but he knows the words will stay with him for a long time.  
A very long time.

"There's always that possibility – whether I'm a Marine or not."

"Ai-"

"I promised I would come back, Lara. I'm not going to break that promise, all right?"

It's not enough – Ford can see that in Lara's eyes, but she calms herself down, shuts it off before it has a chance to mess things up.  
"All right," she says. "I'll be here for dinner tomorrow night."  
"You better." Assured that Lara is going to let this drop for now, Ford reaches for her and pulls her into a tight hug. "Because I may never forgive you if you don't…"  
She laughs a little bit and hugs him back. "I'll be here."

* * *

She's there for dinner every night for the rest of block leave.

* * *

The day Ford has to go back is clear, cloudless, and cool.  
Grandma and Grandpa walk him out to the car, Grandpa in his golf sweater and hat, and Grandma wringing her hands like this is almost too much for her.  
Maybe it is, but she is the same woman who waited for her husband to come home from World War II and Korea.  
She knows the military way of life.

He stuffs his bags into the backseat of the taxi while they crowd around, saying goodbye over and over again in a relentless mantra-  
Like they're afraid if they don't say it a million times, it will be like they never said it at all.  
Like they need for the words to be said, and the assurance that they actually got to say it.

They've already hugged him a million times between the front door and the cab, so he's not worried about hugging them now, but every time they say goodbye, he says it in return.  
Maybe he needs to know they're hearing his goodbyes as much as they need to know he's hearing theirs.

And then he climbs in and closes the door, tenses himself for that moment when the driver pulls away.  
When the man does, he turns to see them standing in the middle of the road, Grandma tucked into Grandpa's side as they wave.  
He can't not wave back until they've completely faded into the distance.

"Deployment is a bitch," the guy up front says when Ford turns back around.  
"You're telling me…" Ford answers, slumping back against the seat.  
_You're telling me._


	2. Chapter 2: Beckett

**Beckett:**

Part of Carson Beckett wants to pinch himself about being home in Scotland, because preparations for the expedition have kept him away for so very long now.  
The other parts of him feel like he's just been punched in the gut because he might never see it again -  
Any of it.  
Maybe there will be characteristics of different planets that remind him of this place - architecture, mountains, trees, customs, speech patterns - but none of it will be the same.

But that is why he came home - to see his beloved home again, his beloved family, and especially his beloved mum.  
It is essential now, now that she is truly the only one left in the cramped four bedroom cottage where she and his dad raised seven highly rambunctious, slightly off-kilter and completely stubborn and determined to succeed children in the midst of the Scottish Moors-  
Away from the bustle and hustle of ye merry England where his father was born in raised.  
How could the man have possibly known that a simple Scottish girl would capture his heart and keep him up north the rest of his days when he started university?

It's difficult, as Carson sits at the dining table waiting for Mum to turn around with the roast and the answering smile to his delighted expression on seeing his favorite supper set before him, to imagine how she will get on without him able to check in.  
While his brothers and sisters come 'round occasionally, he's the one to pick up the phone and ring her in the evenings.  
When he lived in the same country, he broke away most opportunities he had to come up and sit with her and watch her programs, help with her shopping, listen to her stories about life with his father before children came along and beautiful chaos ensued.  
They've promised to fill in the gap for him, insisting that this is his time and his opportunity to find himself, free of the family encumbrances he's taken upon himself for so long.

Carson's not so sure about their ability to follow through, but he has committed to going.  
And if he doesn't do something like this at some point, they will never the opportunity to try.

"It looks fantastic, Mum," he says now as she scurries around to the other side of the table to sit down while he picks up the proper utensils to cut the roast. "Thank you so much."  
"No trouble at all," she says, all smiles.  
He knows that, for all the time it's taken her to prepare it, she means exactly that.  
He also knows that she would say and mean the same thing for his brothers and sisters, but it is especially heartfelt here because this is the son who has taken her care upon himself who is just now leaving to fulfill a destiny she's always told him he would achieve.

The doorbell rings as Carson starts to bring the knife and cut into the meat.  
"Oh, I wonder who that could be," his mum says, standing up and flittering to the front door to see whoever might be calling on a night such as this.  
Everyone knows he is leaving in the morning, after all.  
And if they didn't before, then one look in his childhood bedroom would be a good hint with all the boxes pulled up to the ceiling along the longest wall.

So Carson pauses while she answers the door, because he's not expecting anyone else to be here tonight.  
The last two weeks have been lunches and suppers out with friends and family wanting to see him and wish him safe travels.  
He's fairly certain everyone important has been squeezed in somewhere and somehow-

Until he hears the raised voices of half a dozen people and realizes that Mum has opened the door to all of his siblings.  
"Couldn't let my brother go out in the big, bad dangerous world without one last good dinner shared with family, could I?" Ian, his tall, burly, darked headed as the night oldest brother, says as he enters the kitchen.  
Carson sets the knife down, walks over, and lets himself get pulled into a bear hug.  
"I'm glad you're here."  
"So am I," Ian says as he lets go. "Now, will you get back to cutting the roast? I don't know about the rest of 'em, but I am starving."


	3. Chapter 3: McKay

_**Author's Note:  
**__I know this is going up quicker than I've been posting, but tomorrow's going to be a hectic day, and I'm already finished with this part anyway, so I figured why not throw it up with the rest?_

_Looking forward to your comments!_

* * *

**McKay:**

The cat.  
Everything is else boxed up, taped up, cleaned out, unplugged, or whatever it needs to be before one does such things as walking away from the leave he knows and traveling to another galaxy –  
A galaxy Rodney McKay – Dr. Rodney McKay – knows he may or may not come back from.

All that is left is the cat, mewling pitifully in the corner because he knows what is coming, and luggage.  
How could he not when Rodney had just come back from taking his litter box and sleeping cushion and the fifty million cans of cat food to the hot neighbor across the hall who was more interested in the cat than the cat's owner?  
Like the constant debate Rodney had with himself over what to take, what would be the best possible way to record all of the achievements and advances the brilliant scientist would make wasn't enough?  
Followed shortly thereafter by rounds of depression because chances were high that no one would ever actually know about them outside of the Pegasus Galaxy, and what good was it to record them if he wasn't going to get a Nobel Prize out of his work in his lifetime.  
Not that Rodney would ever admit to that, because that would be suicide –  
Suicide for his dream of wowing Pegasus with everything he knows.

So Rodney slings the bags over his shoulders, and clutches his keys as he picks up the cat, who tries to wiggle away as soon as he gets a hold of him.  
His eyes trail over the bookcases and dust covers and barrenness of his apartment one last time before he takes a deep breath and heads for the door.

Glory and prestige, right.  
Nobel Prize someday, of course.  
This apartment will be a stop on historical tours someday, and this last moment immortalized on the silver screen eventually.  
How can it not when the story is so clearly scripted for film?  
Greatest scientist ever (except, maybe, for Major Samantha Carter) leaves everything behind – successful career as a physicist, high paying job, family (granted, he hasn't seen Jeannie in years, but still) for a seemingly one-way ticket to far-flung adventures millions of light years away from the planet he grew up on.  
Definitely Oscar-worthy.

_And you could have been an actor_, he tells himself as his footsteps echo in the stillness.  
_You had the talent.  
You just love science more._

Rodney has himself convinced of that by the time he closes the door behind him for what could be the last time, locks it (yes, with the still wiggling cat in his arms), and turns in the hallway to knock on the neighbor's door.  
She opens it like she's been waiting for this moment her entire life.  
He would feel better about that if the reason for her reaction were him, but it's not and he knows it.  
She wants the cat.

To add a certain humiliation to the moment, the cat stops fighting and goes willingly to its new home.  
All Rodney is left with as the door closes behind them is the knowledge that the cat will be taken care of-  
Like the movers will take care of packing up the boxes and the furniture and putting everything into storage, because Rodney just hasn't had the time between packing and final preparations and adjusting calculations and algorithms and every other nitpicky thing that needs to be done…  
Oh, god, if he comes back and finds even the slightest nick in anything, he will sue the movers.  
_If he comes back…_

He fights with that thought the rest of the day.


	4. Chapter 4: Sheppard

**_Author's Note:_**

_Just wanted to say Sheppard is a tough nut to crack. I feel like it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to write this part. _

_And... reviews are wonderful. I adore them. I'm thinking about printing them out and hanging them on a wall somewhere. Except that might get a little creepy. And my walls have enough hanging on them without adding something else._

* * *

**Sheppard:**

It's a busy day at the park.  
Moms, dads, kids, teenagers are everywhere, chatting, laughing, doing life together.  
Yet somewhere in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the crowds, Sheppard's found himself a nice patch of grass on top of a tiny hill where people seem to just… fade into the distance.  
It's almost like they pick up on the disaster signals emanating off of him-  
Or they see the metaphorical F- Off sign on his forehead.

More likely the former than the latter, which suits Sheppard just fine today.

There are a million things he is trying to avoid thinking about, deciding about, by coming here.  
One, he's still trying to wrap his head around the idea that the Pegasus Galaxy – so distant, as he remembers well from college astronomy classes – is just a short hop through a wormhole.  
Second, he's having trouble with this whole genetic marker that allows him instant access to technology from an ancient alien race.  
How the hell did he end up with it, anyway?  
And who else in the Sheppard family carried it, or was he the only one?  
Third, despite his affirmative answer to O'Neil on the chopper back to McMurdo, he's still not one thousand percent sure he even wants to do this.  
Who in their right minds gives a major with a black mark for disobeying orders in the middle of an operation an assignment to a top secret expedition even the majority of the President's cabinet knows almost nothing about?

Right.  
That would be Dr. Weir, a woman smart enough to go over Sheppard's head when he showed reluctance and enlist a general in her bid to get him on her team.  
He'd been resigned to his post at McMurdo at first, and the solitude had grown on him-  
Flying choppers and ferrying civilians and soldiers both to and from the research base on Antarctica.  
There were plenty of ghosts from the past to wrestle with – his father, Dave, Nancy, Holland, Dex and Mitch, to name a few – and at least he'd had a small amount of space to do so south of the equator.  
Maybe another galaxy would let him win a few rounds.

The coin Sheppard pulls out of his pocket to flip is an homage, because he knows that come super early Monday morning, he'll be strapped into his gear with his "Hail Mary" pass, his copy of _War and Peace_, and his trusty P-14 on his belt –  
Going through the gate thing and most likely never coming back here.  
It might not be the worst thing to ever happen.

In honor of all the hours he would sit with Dex and Mitch, watching the two of them gamble away an entirely fake life savings by flipping coins when there were no cards to play with, he flips the coin to decide what to do.  
Heads, Atlantis. Tails, stay here.

And heads is what comes up.  
Sheppard turns the coin over, and can't completely suppress the smile threatening to cross his face when he sees the other side is heads as well.  
Double headed coin-  
Atlantis, it is.

So he pulls himself up, stuff the coin in his pocket again, and heads back to his car.  
Now that that's decided, there's one thing left to do.  
Finish packing.


	5. Chapter 5: Weir

**_Beginning Author's Note:_**

_This one really ended up being the easiest (after all my fears that it would be the most difficult!) – maybe because I've had so much time to think about it?  
Regardless, on with the sh- story.  
Yeah, on with the story. *insert sheepish grin here*_

* * *

**Weir:**

Elizabeth can't stop fidgeting with the camera.  
For all the cool, calm and collected demeanor she was able to project earlier in convincing General O'Neil that making a video recording to tell the man she loves where she is going and why without being sure Simon will have the security clearance necessary to watch it (not really that difficult, because O'Neil had a softer heart than he would ever admit), now she is a bundle of nerves.  
How do you tell the man who wants to put a wedding band on your finger that you've been offered the chance of a lifetime, and you hope he'll wait for your return, but the chances of that happening are astronomically off the charts?

If Elizabeth had thought it would do any good to actually write this out, she would have.  
The thing is, though, that Simon knows her.  
He knows when she's speaking from a script, and when she's speaking from a heart filled with passion and love.  
This recording needs to come from her heart, not a cheat sheet resting on the floor where the camera can't see it.

Simon deserves better than that.  
When President Hayes handpicked her for the appointment to leadership of the SGC, he'd been the one to tell her to take the opportunity (even though he had no clue what it was exactly).  
_You wanted to make sure the money the government gives to the military is justifiably spent, Elizabeth – here's your chance.  
_He'd been so incredibly patient through the long months after that, of her taking the reins and then passing them on to O'Neil, the negotiations over the research base on Antarctica, and organizing the expedition…  
Some people might say it was all a little bit too good for one man to be.  
Maybe, but he was her man, and she didn't doubt him for a second.  
He understood her destiny – sometimes better than she did – and knowing she would always return to him…

Well, that would make it a lot easier.

But this time is different, and she knows it.  
Before, it was asking him to put their life together on hold for a little while.  
Now, it's asking him without asking him to wait for something that might never come.  
And it's killing her.

After what feels like an eternity of wrestling with the question of what to do, what the right words to say are, Elizabeth finally feels that tug in her gut-  
The one that says she knows what the right thing to do here is, and that she needs to suck it up and say the words now.  
She still has so many things to do, so much to organize before her departure.  
Recording a message isn't something she wants to feel like she's marking off of a checklist, but the reality is that it is on a list of things to get done, and she will mark it off when she turns the camera off and stops recording.

So when that feeling tugs at her, she rises, leans in to press the record button, then sits back down as the camera starts to do exactly that.

"Simon, if you're watching this, it means the President has been kind enough to grant you security clearance…"

* * *

**_Ending Author's Note:_**

_The end is here (for this story, anyway)! I've had a lot of fun with this, and am so thankful for those of you who have read/reviewed/alerted/etc. It really has brightened my days this week to come home to all of the alerts and reviews especially! I do have a few one-shots up my sleeve, and there's that whole Moments series I'm working on, too, so stay tuned for that. You're amazing, each and every one of you. :-)_


End file.
